Yamaha Producer Series "Production Values." ad, Keyboard 1984

Yamaha Producer Series "Production Values." full page colour advertisement from the back cover of the February 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Interesting fact: It's 1984, and yet this appears to be only the second Yamaha synthesizer advertisement to appear on the back cover of Keyboard Magazine. But once Yamaha got this ad onto the back cover, it kept it there pretty regularly from February all the way through to October.

It seems that Yamaha decided it wasn't exactly through with the promotion of its Producer Series line of products. But instead of reanimating those fun, illustrated ads from a few years ago, they decided it might be better to switch gears a bit and begin promoting both the old and new Producer Series gear towards the professional studio musician. And probably a good thing, because you can't really roller skate with a four-track recorder. At least not this Yamaha four-track. 

It was time to bring those roller skaters back into the studio to cut all those tracks people had been working on for the last two years with their CS01 synthesizer, MA10 headphone amp, MM10 portable mixer and MH10 headphones. They are all still available as part of the Producer Series, so they must have been selling okay.

But the bulk of this advertisement's ad-copy is all about the new studio gear:

• MT44 4-track cassette recorder.
• MM30 4x2 mixer with built-in analog delay, 7 band equalizer.
• RB30 system rack with patch bay and accessories compartment.

I really became intrigued with this 4-track system after seeing this ad a few days ago. I loved my Tascam four-track - I cut my teeth in music production on that that thing. But this system with patch bay and mixer sounds and looks really cool.

It didn't take long for a Google search to bring up that RB30 manual and it turns out the RB30 is the Ikea equivalent of studio furniture. It makes me want to find all the parts and recreate it even more! Gah!

Also - I found a great little German blog that included some good pics. Google's Chrome browser with its Translation feature is *awesome*. 

Almost as intriguing as this studio system is the one other piece of gear they kind of just slipped in here. As far as I can tell, it wasn't part of the original line up of Producer Series gear, but yet never really got any promotion on its own whenever it came out.

I'm talking about that MR10 drum machine! It kind of just got thrown into this ad

Well, in Yamaha's defense, it has been two years since that last batch of ads ran and they were releasing products as fast as humanly possible. And then some. They probably just didn't have enough ad space. But, we can get an idea of when that MR10 drum machine was actually released from when it appeared in the Spec Sheet section of the magazine in February 1983.

It actually appeared as part of a long series of Yamaha new gear, including mixers and power amplifiers, but those other items were not part of the Producer Series (but maybe precursors to them?), so I've only included the drum machine info:

"Yamaha Drum Machine, Mixers & Power Amps. The Yamaha MR10 is a battery-operated rhythm unit with twelve preset rhythms, plus five finger pads for playing live fills or entire rhythm parts. Preset rhythms, which can be combined with one another for greater variety, include disco, jazz, swing, waltz, march, and several Latin rhythms. In addition to the master volume, there are separate volume controls for the bass drum and cymbal. A tuning control governs the pitch of the snare drum, high tom-tom, and low tom-tom, and a tempo control governs the speed of the automatic rhythms. automatic fills can be activated every four or eight bars if desired...."

What the devil? No price?

Boooooo! 

That's enough Producer Series for now. On to something else in the next blog post. 

Yamaha "Producer Series" 12-page brochure, 1983

  
Yamaha "Producer Series" 12-page brochure from 1983 featuring the MA10 Headphone Amplifier, MM10 Mic/Line Stereo Portable Mixer, and CS01 Micro-Monophonic Synthesizer.

Just in case you couldn't get enough of the illustrations from Yamaha's 1982 "Producer Series" ads that ran in the June, August and October issues of Keyboard Magazine, I thought I would post this awesome 12-pager.  It took a bit more time than normal to scan, but I figure that allows me to blog a little bit less.  :)

Illustrations aside for a second, this brochure is also currently in my top 10 because it also gives readers an up close and personal look at each piece of gear. Labels for every knob, lever, dial and input and output are all clearly visible. And each piece of gear has a page or two devoted to detailed info. Can't beat that. 

But as much as I like that first half of the brochure, its the last half that is a joy to read. I really like diagrams. But I *love* these diagrams.  I'm talking about the "Six  Producer Series set-ups". The illustrator that sketched the imagery in those Yamaha ads was clearly running on all cylinders when asked to come up with more imagery for this brochure.

To me, the punch line comes in that sixth set-up (bottom of page 10) for "Amplifying TV sound". Two couch-potatoes lounging in front of a TV, beer and cigarette in hand, and head-phones securely on their heads so they can listen to their TV "privately and in synthesized stereo". Brilliant. And I'm also kinda crushing a little on the country singer in the second set up. Those are some serious birthin' hips.

The brochure was the perfect end to this series of illustrated Yamaha ads. If they had kept them going on longer, they might have become as epic as the John Mattos period of Sequential Circuits ads and brochures. Almost.

My biggest problem now is trying to decide which one of these illustrations to make my avatar on Facebook and the Cakewalk forum I just joined.

Yamaha CS01, MA10, MH10 and MM10 Producer Series "Before. After. Affordable Alternative..." ad, Keyboard 1982

Yamaha CS01 Synthesizer, MA10 Headphone Amplifier, MH10 Stereo Headphones and MM10 Stereo Mic/Line Mixer "Before. After. Affordable Alternative..." Producer Series two-page colour advertisement from page 8 and 9 in the October 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Okay, it definitely wasn't Yamaha's original intent, but I *really* want that synthesizer the dude in the bucket is playing in the "Before" illunstration. It's like a cross between a Kord MS20 and some computer panel from an early James Bond flick that some anonymous henchman would be controlling. It actually brings back some great memories of a time when all my available income would go towards that one... special... synth (which would change when the next best synth came out). A time when I would honestly consider wearing a bucket if it meant I could buy it. Although I'd never not pay for a good haircut.

But Yamaha once again does a fine job of literally illustrating their point - the Producer Series gear wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. It was truly an "Affordable Alternative".

This was the third and final ad in this particular series of "Producer Series" ads. If you recall, each in the series dealt with one particular advantage that the gear held over its competitors. The "Rolling Sound" ad was all about the mobility of the gear, and the "Private Practice" ad pushed the idea of being able to practice without disturbing others. 

Rolling Sound.                             Private Practice.

Each of these ads appeared only once - June, August, and October 1982. And its a shame, because the illustrations are really nice and they all deserved more airtime. But I'm sure part of the problem was that Yamaha was pumping out tons of gear all the time, and needed to advertise all those products. To make the point, during the time these ads were running, Yamaha was also throwing advertising dollars at Keyboard Magazine for the CS70m, Electone 7000, CE20 combo, CP11 and CP12 electric pianos, and PS10 and PS20 portable keyboards. They were running two to four ads per month.

All those different products probably made it a little confusing for the consumer. And I'm not the only one who thought so.

Dominic Milano says as much in the introduction of his March 1983 Keyboard Report on three Yamaha offerings - the PC-100, MP-1 and the lovely CS01.

"Companies, as they get larger, tend to split themselves up into smaller divisions internally, for administrative reasons. This may make perfect sense for their own purposes, but it can be confusing for anybody from the outside who deals with them. Case in point: Yamaha International (which is itself a division of Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd.) has no less than three separate divisions selling keyboard instruments. Depending on what instrument you want to talk about, your phone call may be routed to either the Keyboard Division (pianos and organs), the Combo Division (rock and jazz keyboards), or the Special Products Division (portable battery-operated keyboards)."

Over-lapping departments in a large organization is never a good thing. It just leads to silos. I've not just seen it, I've experienced it.

So, guess which division the portable, battery-operated CS01 synthesizer was a part of. Nope, not the Specialty Products Division which specialized in portable, battery-operated keyboards. It belonged to the Combo Division, which includes rock and jazz keyboards. Go figure. Well, enough griping about that. 

Dominic's report on the CS01 is pretty standard, concentrating on the functionality of the synth. And he did touch on one aspect of the CS01 that really interests me - the breath control. The VCF and VCA can both be controlled with Yamaha's $35 breath controller accessory.

"This handy little accessory, which you blow into, turns the CS01 into a very expressive lead instrument. The amount of signal from the breath controller that is opening up the filter or VCA can be continuously adjusted with a pair of knobs at the left end of the keyboard. Thus you can easily use the ADSR to control the loudness while your breath controls the filter cutoff, or vice-versa. Or you can mix the two for some subtle inflections."

Yeah, sure, you might look a little odd running around the stage with the CS01 around your neck and a giant soother in your mouth... wait... actually, now you wouldn't look that odd.

I'm going to have to investigate that breath control a little further...

Yamaha CS01, MA10, MH10 and MM10 Producer Series "Before. After. Rolling Sound..." ad, Keyboard 1982

Yamaha CS01 Synthesizer, MA10 Headphone Amplifier, MH10 Stereo Headphones and MM10 Stereo Mic/Line Mixer "Before. After. Rolling sound..." Producer Series two-page colour advertisement from page 36 and 37 in the August 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Yamaha must have known they were on to a good thing with the artistic direction taken for the Producer Series of advertisements, and decided to keep the ball rolling after the first ad appeared in the June 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine - ---see right  --->

In that first advertisement, Yamaha focused on the theme of "Private practice", where using only Yamaha Producer Series equipment, a band could practice without annoying the neighbours, or apparently, the pet dog.

In this second advertisement, again appearing only once, this time in the August 1982 issue of Keyboard, the theme switches to "Rolling sound", aka the ability to take your music on the road. And not on now-fasionable inline skates, but old-skool roller skates - toe-brakes and all. Whether we are talking about the skates or the... ahem... cleavage... it is truly all in the details.  Hubba!  The point is, this battery-operated gear is light and easy to take on the road.

Both this ad and the previous one follow the same "Before/After" layout, with only two splashes of colour to be found. In the "Producer Series" name and the gear itself. Those splashes of colour save the ad in some ways, allowing the readers' eyes to find a focal point. Something that could be rather difficult without the colour in a two page advertisement this busy.

I have to give Yamaha credit. They went to great lengths to make these ads unique. And not just the imagery, but the ad-copy as well. The story pulls each piece of gear from the Producer Series into the ad, even if it is not part of the artwork. Nice.

At some point I'll pick up all these pieces just to fiddle with, but as can be seen in my previous blog post, my obsession is really all about the CS01 synthesizer.

Side note: I went through a period where I was really fascinated with mini-synthesizers and at one point was ignoring all my other gear and creating music based only around my CZ101, DX100, MC202 and Prophecy. Kind of concept album. Never went anywhere, and probably a good thing since that last one I mentioned, the Korg Prophecy, may not be a true mini. Someone would have called me out on that. But it is monophonic. And great sounding. And adorable - just like the rest in this group. :)

Anyways, my obsession is really about the CS01. But the others were definitely along for the ride. For example, all four pieces appeared in the same Spec Sheet promo in the May 1982 issue of Keyboard (a month before the ads started to appear). The promo focuses on the most important aspects of each piece - the size and weight. Plus, us historical freaks get some retail pricing info too!

"Yamaha products. Four new miniaturized sound reinforcement components have been introduced by Yamaha. The portable battery-operated CS01 Monophonic Synthesizer, is 19 3/4" wide by 6-3/8" deep, with a 32-note keyboard, pitch and mod wheels, LFO, variable glissando, pitch, and waveform controls, pulse width modulation, full VCF, VCA, and envelope generator controls, an octave selector for adjusting keyboard range, and an interface allowing modulation of both VCF and VCA functions by breath. A build-in amp and speaker system is also included. Price is $249.95. The MH10 Headphone Amplifier, weighing 17 ounces and measuring 8-3/4" by 5" by 2-1/16", features four line inputs and outputs, separate volume controls, bass and treble controls, and input and master volume controls that permit intentional distortion effects. A built-in analog delay line can create a stereo-like effect. The MA10 sells for $124.95. The MH10 Stereo Headphones weigh two ounces, and feature adjustable headband and a 9' cable. Price is $29.95. Finally, the MM10 Mic/Line Stereo Portable Mixer weighs 17 ounces, measures 98-3/4" by 5" by 2-1/16", with capability of mixing up to four signals. Each powered product runs on either AC or battery. Yamaha, Boxx 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622."

$249.95?!?! That's an amazing price for what the portable CS01 can do. And the timing couldn't have been better either. In this May issue alone, we have advertisements for the Roland TB303/TR606 and SCI Remote Prophet. And the article on Jonathan Cain (Ex-Babys Keyboardist touring with Journey) features a large photo of him with an ARP Odyssey strapped around his neck (and looking like he's experiencing severe back problems). Technology was getting to the point where the luxury of portability was starting to kick in. Yamaha was catching the wave.

I'm curious though... can I really get a power generator harness for my dog? I could see how that could come in handy.

Yamaha CS01, MA10, MH10 and MM10 " Producer Series: Before. After. Private practice..." ad, Keyboard 1982

Yamaha CS01 Synthesizer, MA10 Headphone Amplifier, MH10 Stereo Headphones and MM10 Stereo Mic/Line Mixer "Producer Series: Before. After. Private practice..."  two-page colour advertisement from page 8 and 9 in the June 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

This advertisement was the start of Yamaha's "Producer Series" two-page ads that would begin appearing in Keyboard Magazine in the summer of 1982 and run intermittently through the fall. Above all else, the reason these ads are so awesome is the great artwork - and you know how much I love synthesizer advertisement artwork. More on that in future Producer Series blog posts.   :)

Today I'm posting this advertisement for one reason: Celebration! Lately I've kinda resembled the dude playing the guitar in the "Before" picture. Like life had just kept kicking me in the 'nads. Or maybe I resembled the dog more...

No matter. With life going the way it is at the moment, I have to take any "win" that I can get. And right now, this one is about a 7 out of 10 on the "celebration" scale.

Have I built up the suspense enough yet? Probably too much.

You see, I recently re-found an old non-functioning Yamaha CS01 synthesizer in my basement. I had originally picked it up so long ago I can't even be sure where I got it. I think it was a freebie that came along for the ride when I locally purchased another synth. I'm sure I had high hopes of taking it in one day to see if it could get repaired, but in the end it quickly ended up out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

Fast forward 20+ years later (no kidding!), I'm searching for a hacksaw blade - don't ask - and this thing literally drops on my head.  At least it wasn't a Jupiter 8 that fell on my head... although that would have been worth the concussion. I brought the CS01 upstairs and there it sat on my living room table for a week or so when I finally decided to take a closer look.

First I decided to wipe off the decades of dirt with a damp cloth. That took a while in itself. But it looked almost like new after I was finished. Only faint letters written on each key in permanent marker remained.

I then plugged the sucker in to see what would happen. The red power/volume light instantly came on, but there was no sound from the keyboard whatsoever or out of any of the controls. Just the way I left it oh so long ago.  I even tried the "Author Fonzarelli" - gently tapped the back of the unit a few times.  From his Wikipedia page:

"Fonzie would at times demonstrate an almost magical ability to manipulate technology with just a nudge, bump or a snap of his fingers for things such as starting a car, turning on lights, changing the song selection on a juke box or getting free sodas from a vending machine."

No such luck.

So I figured it was time to take out my screw driver and see what was happening inside.

One word - rust.

It was like one side of the synth had been dipped in water. Ugh. You can see the damage in the close up picture. Cool thing about this circuit board is everything is labelled well. Envelope generator, VCF, VCA, Osc - everything. Very cool. There is even smaller labels indicating inputs and outputs of different functions.

Now, please remember - I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not a technician. But I figured if I could at least get it to make a sound then I would know it was probably worth taking it in to get fixed.

I unscrewed the keyboard mechanism and everything looked fine.  I took a cloth and wiped all the dirt off everything and screwed the keyboard back on. Then, without closing it back up, I plugged it in ... and... noise! And musical noise even! The keys even seemed to be functioning fine.

I put everything back together and started testing the controls.

VCO - check.

VCF - check.

VCA - check.

LFO - check.

Pitch bend and modulation wheels - check. 

EG - check. Well, kinda.

Turns out everything is working except the Glissando (portamento) in the VCO section, and the attack time and release time in the Envelope Generator. All the keys except for the highest and lowest work as well, although they are a little dirty still.

So, maybe I do have the Fonzie-touch afterall. Excellent. I look forward to dating twins at some point in my future.

All  that good news means one thing - this CS01 is definitely worth saving. I'll take it in to my tech along with my Minimoog (which for some reason just konked out on me) sooner rather than later. 

A pretty good Sunday morning project.